The DORF proposal is bringing to light some universal issues with records, so I am glad they are being hashed out. However, at this point it is premature optimization: we still don't have a proposal that solves the narrow issue of record name-spacing with Haskell.
At this point SORF/DORF need a hero to figure out how to make them work with all of Haskell's current type capabilities. The DORF proposal makes some steps forward, but also backwards: it only solves the narrow name-spacing issue within a module. If a record is imported into another module, it will still clash. I stated this months ago, and I think it is even truer now: the sugar approach to records does not appear to actually be simplifying things, therefore we should consider adding a new first-class construct. I don't know much about the subject of first-class records, but so far I have come across a few styles of existing implementations in FP: structural typing, records as modules, and row types. I recently linked to Ur's extensible record impementation (that uses row types) from the wiki: http://adam.chlipala.net/papers/UrPLDI10/UrPLDI10.pdf We are trying to stay focused on the narrow issue of solving name-spacing. I think we can stay narrow if we do implement first class records but hold off for now on presenting any special capabilities to the programmer. At this point we are months into the records process without a clear way forward. I think we should be willing to take any workable implementation and just avoid exposing the implementation details for now. If anyone can lend a hand at figuring out SORF updates or determining if type inference of records in the Ur paper can be made to work in Haskell, that would be very helpful! Greg Weber On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 7:01 AM, Jerzy Karczmarczuk <jerzy.karczmarc...@unicaen.fr> wrote: > Barney Hilken : > >> Haskel is supposed to be a theoretically sound, cleanly designed language, >> and if we lose sight of this we might as well use C++. > > Well, since I have nothing to say about new records, I don't say anything, > but I have the impression that when we got to this level of discussion, it > is a beginning of the end. Veeery, very funny... > > Imagine an ecclesiastic General Council, and the Pope saying: > > "Brothers Bishops! Our new dogmas must be absolutely flawless, pure and > sound, otherwise we might as well become Muslims". > > > Inchaa whatever. > > Jerzy Karczmarczuk > Caen, France > > > > _______________________________________________ > Glasgow-haskell-users mailing list > Glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org > http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-users _______________________________________________ Glasgow-haskell-users mailing list Glasgow-haskell-users@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-users
